The Week That Was, January 2nd – January 6th 2019

Posted on 06. Jan, 2019 in: TWTW

Politics/Economy:

In his final New Year speech ahead of the general election Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen warned that the ‘peaceful world we dreamt about’ after the fall of the Berlin Wall is ‘crumbling’ – he highlighted the growing disparity between rich and poor in the USA, the Brexit chaos in the UK, and the violent yellow jacket protests in France.

A new Kantar Gallup poll for Berlingske showed neither Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen nor opposition leader Mette Frederiksen can count on the support of more than 1 in 4 voters in this year’s election – only 25% of voters prefer the current incumbent while 28% prefer the Social Democrat leader in a prime minister run-off – 35% believe there’s little difference between the two.

Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen came out on top in a new Gallup popularity poll of cabinet ministers, followed by Environment & Food Minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, seen by many as a potential successor to Mr Rasmussen if the government loses the election – the Liberal Alliance’s six cabinet ministers, including Foreign Minister Anders Samuelsen, are bottom of the pile.

Speaker of the House Pia Kjærsgaard called on all parliamentary parties to come together in a joint front to combat foreign, primarily Russian, intervention in this year’s election campaign.

Leading Danish economists urged the government to make moves to secure the strong economy while the going’s good – they named the lack of manpower and the need for ‘cautious’ reforms as the main economic issues in the upcoming election campaign.

The National Bank sold DKK11.6 bn($1.77 bn) worth of foreign currency ahead of Christmas to shore up the krone – reserves fell to DKK457.4 bn, fuelling speculation about an interest rate increase this year that could slow growth.

Denmark’s purchasing managers index (PMI), seen as an important indicator of the country’s economic health, rose to 58.1 points in December from a revised 57.9 points in November.

EU/Foreign Affairs:

As Britons prepare to leave the EU a new Kantar Gallup poll for Berlingske showed 62% of Danish voters are against following them, the highest level of support for EU membership ever in this country – a pre-Christmas Epinion poll for DR News showed 59% of Danish voters would prefer Britain to remain within the union.

The Social Democrats accused Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen of misleading parliament by claiming the government has been successful in sending criminal immigrants back to their own country to serve a prison sentence – new figures show that over the past two years the government has been unable to persuade Romania to accept one single criminal.

Although ex-Social Liberal (R) leader Margrethe Vestager’s five-year term as European competition commissioner is coming to an end in November analysts believe she will continue to combat global tech companies’ tax abuse to the bitter end – Ms Vestager has imposed back taxes and fines on Apple, Amazon, Facebook and Google during her time in Brussels.

The authorities in Schleswig-Holstein, the northernmost of German states, overruled environmental objections and approved the 19 km Fehmarnbelt link, connecting the Danish island of Lolland to the island of Fehmarn on the German side – the DKK52bn ($8.1bn) project, part-funded by the EU, was due to be completed in 2024 but has been constantly delayed by environmental protests in Germany.

Social Affairs:

Eight people died in Wednesday’s Great Belt Bridge train crash, Denmark’s worst rail accident in decades.

A new report revealed that workers in the public sector take nearly twice the sick leave of private sector employees – employees of local authorities throughout Denmark too, on average, 12.8 ‘sick days’ in 2017 compared to 6.8 by private employees.

Lawmakers called for an increase in the price of cigarettes following disturbing new figures showing smoking is on the rise in Denmark.

Ahead of the new year Moroccan police charged 15 people, including a Swiss national, with terrorism violations in connection with the brutal slaying of two women, from Denmark and Norway earlier in December.

To read all the above articles in full see:  http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required)

Business:

Business Minister Rasmus Jarlov said the government is planning to overhaul the Danish Financial Services Authority (FSA) early in 2019 following the Danske Bank money laundering scandal – Danske Bank was awarded the ‘2019 Corrupt Actor of the Year’ award from the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a dubious honour previously given to Russia’s President Putin, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, and the Romanian parliament.

Wind energy giant Vestas enjoyed a fruitful end to 2018 by announcing a flurry of big orders, making it a record year for the company – the orders were spread all over the globe, with contracts awarded from projects in Germany, Brazil, Australia, the United States, Ukraine, Italy, Poland, Sweden and Russia.

And That Was the Week That Was, January 2nd – January 6th 2019: To read all the above articles in full see: http://seven59.dk/archive (subscription required).